How I Transformed My Family Room

Those of you who know me personally know that my family has been through some recent struggles. My husband and I started a hardware and lighting business several years ago before the economy took a nosedive. For a while, things were good. Fast forward a year or two and things became not so good. Anyway, moving forward, my husband after many months of looking, found a job and we are beginning to dig out of our hole, one shovelful at a time. Can I just say that I am thankful to have a husband who is a wonderful role model to our boys and who never gave up no matter how hard it was at times.

With all the changes that have taken place in our living room, you would think that finances were not an issue. I am about to share with you how I made these changes without spending a dime. This is not say that I owe anyone an explanation on how I spend money, but if this helps one person devise a plan for their home who feels that they can't afford it, then my time will be well spent with writing this post. That said, grab some coffee, then come right back.

There was a time when my living room looked like this. Not entirely awful, but not quite what I envisioned either. As I have mentioned before, the scale of the sofa was wrong for the space and the ottoman looked like a blob. Too many solid darks and not enough brightness and pattern.

I came up with a plan to sell the ottoman and sofa, and depending on what I could get out of them, I would then decide my plan for how to replace them. Our local news paper has a deal allowing you to list items valued under $1000 for free. Each week if the item hasn't sold, you can re-up the ad. I did this and the ottoman sold the first week for $100. Sweet. Timing is everything. Thanks to Erica, I found an ottoman at Walmart that had been marked down to $49. This leaves me money to recover it with and room to purchase a pillow or three. I know that many of you wouldn't step foot in Walmart let alone order furniture online, but I did. Walmart offers "site to store" which translates to free shipping to your local store. I will say that the service I recieved at our local Walmart exceeded my expectations. The employees were courteous, timely, and a nice man carried my package to my car and loaded it for me.

Here she is with new fabric and a coat of glossy paint black.

The next week the sofa sold for $450. Yippee. The Ektorp from Ikea was our first choice and the $399 price tag made it even better. Is this a sofa that will last a lifetime? No, but honestly, the thought of 20 years worth of dead skin cells and cheese-it dust gives me the willies. We purchased the white slip cover which is machine washable. The Ektorp comes with lots of color options. We wanted the washable option, but may revisit this at a later time. Also, many of you have asked me to post about the Ektorp. I plan to do so once the slip cover has been washed because I want to share with you everything I know.

Fast forward to now and here is what we have. An ottoman that has air around it in a neutral pattern that adds interest to the room. A sofa that is lighter and brighter with appropriate scale for the space.

Pillows that add a playful dose of color and reflect the turquoise that is also found on our front door and accessories. Mom made the throw and we adore it. Also, the throw breaks up the sameness of the wing chairs a bit.